There is something about abstract art we just love. Huge pieces like this fill up a wall in a cinch! As a cliche, it might be – you can interpret it in so many different ways. For example on the left, we see a wild animal. What do you see?
HOUSEKEEPING MESSAGE
Please note, the blog is getting a makeover, please excuse the mess. However, the need to write surpasses my vanity for design. I am going to keep it short and sweet since it is NOT a unicorn butterfly entry.
EASY PEASY – NO!
Come on, it is easy to get over it… “Just focus on the Nugget & Heathertique and soon the hard time’s divorce will all be behind you,” – THEY SAID! Umm, okay… I have been doing that and it is getting less uncomplicated, but when will it stop IMPACTING my day-to-day living? I am emotionally detached from X, but when his words and actions impact the Nugget in a blighted manner the inner mother bear in me wants to surface.
MY HACK
I can take the jabs, but when it comes to my child it destroys me. Honestly, it used to emotionally paralyze me to the point where I was just, so gobsmacked all entrepreneurial and personal duties were neglected. I know I mentioned in the Rock Bottom post of how I climbed my way out, but I failed to mention how much solace I found in music.
MY PERSONAL ANTEM
My current anthem is a song by Kesha. I know! That girl went through hell and back and now she is stronger than ever. The Rolling Stones magazine did a great article on her liberation. You know maybe this a unicorn butterfly post – Kesha’s latest album is titled “Rainbow.” By far, I am not a pop star, I can totally relate and maybe sharing will help someone too. Ladies and Gentlemen without further a due, I leave you with “Praying”. We love to know your personal anthem to add to our playlist, please share in comments.
A COOL CREDIT
While writing this post, I came across PropShop24 “Curators of Cool” they have the coolest stuff including the No Drama Llama graphic used.
To Post or Not to Post
A couple weeks ago I blogged about my Rock Bottom epiphany and revamping myself and Heathertique. With both the store and the blog under construction, I was having serious qualms about posting. Also, I am not the best writer and you grammar perfectionist scare the shit out of me – flashbacks to AP English in high school. Guess what? IDGAF – I am going to post about the current situation it may or may not read well or even have content you want to read, but I am doing it anyway. PS: I just learned what that IDGAF meant – only if I could be as cool as Tha Venice Bitch.
Back In the eBay Day
Most of you who are reading this follow me on Instagram and we all know I love the thrill of the hunt! However, I do not really care for the post curation duties. Then it dawns on me Heathertique is a business and my full-time job and as a single mother bringing in revenue is a GOOD thing, right?
Selling online is not like it used to be. In 1998 I signed up for eBay and began selling vintage clothing, like the Netflix series GirlBoss, but not as glamorous. I ran my shop in the basement of my grandmother’s house in Salem, Virginia. Back then there was NO competition and took a pic wrote a script and boom shakalaka you were done!
I just remember bringing my shipments to the local post office and the workers asking, “You do what?!” & “This person just bought THAT through the puter?!” I would grin and politely say “Yes, Bubba it is a new concept and NO it is not drugs.”
SEO? KPI? ROI?
Selling online today requires a marketing strategy and it is a new alphabet soup to learn. You also have to mix it in with your social media. I do prefer the latter of the two, I enjoy telling a story, engaging with others, and just being me. I may not do it well but sharing what is happening in my world has become therapeutic. Of course, I want to be as organic as I can which may scare some people, but mama must feed the nugget.
Strategic planning is what I used to do and now I have to do it for my hobby turned business and it stresses me out. Do I still focus on the SEO or do more social media marketing? Is there a new formula/technique I am missing? Shit, I am getting old! I get so overwhelmed by the every revolving tactics that I need retail therapy. There goes the time slot to post existing inventory to my online store or to my Chairish shop.
No Friday Celebration For Us
Yes, I love to curate and yes, I did turn one of my bedrooms into a stock room for my inventory. Ever since my Rock Bottom post, I want to be accountable and I have been posting my uncommon goods online like a machine. I also want to avoid an intervention by my tribe my obsession job and not having the show Hoarders knocking at my door.
Last week I took about 25 items that were not moving to one of my favorite FortLauderdale businesses – Encore Interiors. Not only do they have amazing inventory it is a win-win for me. I am still selling the product and I have more visual space. This weekend my goal is to take this tiny portion of existing inventory and have it online. Maybe in a few weeks, I can have the bedroom back and Airbnb it. That is right it is all about the hustle, baby.
There may not be any hunting this weekend for us, but if you find something swell – share it with us. We love to hear stories of the prize from your hunt!
We are little embarrassed to say we are new to Polyvore, but now we are so obsessed mixing our eclectic and vintage curated goods with other brands! Today we did a set inspired by Valentine’s Day – check out our other sets on our Polyvore Heathertique Page. Wishing everyone a sweet and happy day of love!
It has been months since there was a post on the blog. I want to use this opportunity to give an update and to share my story why myself and Heathertique will have a fresh approach. A few years ago, I started Heathertique just on the side to sell the surplus of home decor good that I carefully hand-picked home decor & vintage goods for my personal collection. At the time, I worked full-time in a very secure government job, being a mom to the most awesome son aka the nugget, and trying to be a wife with a husband that traveled literally 75% of the year. At the time balancing life became a struggle and I fell hard; the last two years my world flipped upside down.
I will not go into specifics, but to name a few: there was a divorce, turning 40, that secure job I mentioned was gone and I got fat. With each stressful event that would occur, I would think to myself this is rock bottom! Life can only go up from here, right? It was not until a couple of months ago I was talking to one of my besties and she said, “Maybe you just need to hit ROCK BOTTOM to wake up.” How could she say that? She knew all my secrets, these events, my darkest thoughts, my insecurities, but she was right.
In late 2016 my remarkable family attorney Johanna Saxton Shields finalized the divorce and made the process a little easier, but the ultimate devastation took place. I had to learn to share my son and as I write these tears fall from my eyes. You see the nugget was born during the 2008 Financial Crisis and just like most of us it impacted our family, especially in South Florida. Doing what he needed to do to provide for our family, the nugget’s father took a new career change with the stigma of the intense traveling. For years it was just me and the nugget while his father popped in and out of our lives. I do not mean that in a negative light, my point is my life revolved around this little boy who was my partner in crime and filled my dance card 24/7. Now I had to split my time and learn to accept that for the next ten plus years I would only be with him half of the time!?!? Yes, the divorce impacted me, but splitting time with the nugget almost killed me.
When I was solo (sans the nugget) I would lay in my room and sleep or use shopping as therapy by justifying it for Heathertique inventory. For months I was emotionally paralyzed, I did try my best to be a good mom. It was really the only priority I kept during that time. Aside from that, I neglected everything from my health, the home I fought so hard to keep, my career, my new business. It was not like I did not know how to perform, I just could not function. Also, there is another element that I am hesitant to disclose because the subject is so over-saturated and controversial. Since I was a child I was diagnosed with severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and it makes life a little complicated and some people’s perception of me as “quirky.”
About a year ago the life shift made me to really look at my soul. The only way I can describe it as opening an old jigsaw puzzle box and staring at the 1000 pieces. So, one by one I started to put the puzzle back together and realize there were pieces that were missing! Also, why would I even want to do the same puzzle again?! The shift changed me, but who was I now? It also occurred to me if I am lucky to reach the age of 80, I was halfway through life. It was time for a new game and NOT a new one sealed in a pretty packaged box. It was time to for me to make my own game for life.
This is where I should stop writing and say everything turned out perfect all unicorns and butterflies, but that would be sooo not true. All the months of being stagnant took a toll; a lot of things in my world suffered – especially Heathertique. I had to pick myself up and I started with my health both emotionally and physically. I worked with a therapist on the head stuff and for the physical part, I purchased a FitBit. It really improved my health I tracked my heart rate, hot yoga sessions at The Yoga Joint, running, water intake, food intake and I eventually began to fit into clothes when I was single! It is a start, but with the motivation of not letting my son down, the support of a small tribe of the most awesome friends ever, and the fear of failing – I am receiving a new puzzle, this time one without a cover. Not only is my life getting an overhaul so is Heathertique. I still want to share my passion for curating, but it is only now that I have hit the basement so to speak. I want to post about other content from my new fresh awakening and share what I discover for my part two. I may not be J.K. Rowling, but she gave a commencement address at Harvard about her Rock Bottom!
